Livable city

Streets overloaded by cars, shrinking space and obstructed walking paths are like a visit card of Georgian towns.
In 2016 April-June by the order of Tbilisi Mayor with financing of Asian Development Bank, the French company SYSTRA together with local partners carried out a mobility survey of Tbilisi households.The main purpose of the survey was to create the database for the existing mobility sample to be used for the future Tbilisi Transport Model. Mobility in Tbilisi is defined as the average person trips per day, which was 1.55. It is noteworthy that the rate has remained stable since 2011, and falls below the international benchmark. For instance,the mobility indicator in Sarajevo amounts to 2.0, while in Talin 2.4. As a rule,these numbers are much higher in developed countries, like the USA (3.75) and Paris (4.1). In total, 35% of people in Tbilisi do not travel at all, which is rather high. According to the survey,mobilitywith private cars in Tbilisi increased compared with 2011 reaching 0.51 per family; this data in 2011 was 0.40.
The average age of motor vehicles is 14 years, which points to the fact that the population of Tbilisi buys second-hand cars, and actually is the most popular means of transport. Two factors explain the low indicator of Tbilisi population mobility: low income and distribution by age.
The correlation of income and mobility is well-known to everyone: the higher the income the more people move. The conclusion of the carried-out survey is not favorable, as the great part of Tbilisi population moves little and a significant part of this mobilityis with private automobiles.
Such surveys have not been conducted in other towns in Georgia, but it can easily be said that this indicator is also probably low, as the level of public transport development and service is even lower. The deserted streets, squares and public gathering places of town after 6 p.m. prove this view. In parts of Georgian towns, public transport schedule is made up according to the trade market time-table and after finishing the working hour of market, public transport stops working as well.
Such a low indicator of mobility in Georgian towns and Tbilisi along with above-mentioned factors relates to the absence of urban transport policy in the country; local municipalities have neither short- nor long-term plans.
On national scale, there is no cohesive policy document that would be a part of urban transport development strategy. Subsequently investment in transport infrastructure, human resources largely depend on support from donors and foreign organizations. There are important flaws in legislation that pose additional barrier to local municipalities to realize transport activities.
The transport system in Georgian towns is chaotic. Most minibuses and buses are out of order or old. There is a scheme planning of transport in some parts of Georgian towns and managing of transport means. Efforts to introduce modern technologies and approaches in managing transport systems managing are mainly present in Tbilisi and Batumi.
In some towns public means of transport are provided by private operators, although the mechanism of their regulations is weak, which has an overall negative influence on transport quality and safety. Today we can say that development of public transport, dealing with the parking issues, encouraging walking and cycling, ensuring the safety on the roads, decreasing the air pollution despite the size of all the towns have become one of the main challenges.
The most popular means of public transport in Georgian towns are minibuses and private taxis, but considering the level of income in region it is a luxury for the majority of people. In Georgian towns, the public transport and bus stops perform the function of parking sites simultaneously, and most drivers of minibuses and taxis do not stop at the specially designated area, which is why the bus stops do not fulfil their function. Moreover, the drivers often stop their vehicles in the middle of the roads, obstructing the flow of traffic.
In the near future, the importance of the creation of urban transport policy on the national scale is necessary to tackle the alarming air pollution rates in Georgian towns. For instance, according to an analysis carried out by Sustainable Development Centre in 2014, in Telavi private and commercial transport sector share of the total energy consumption was 96% with a similar share of total emissions (96.5%). Land autotransport is one of the main sources of air pollution in Georgian towns, with a growing share of total energy consumption and emissions.
There are some families in Tbilisi whose monthly income is 300 GEL and only15 % of them have got at least one car in a family. The proportion reaches 46% for families with monthly income between 600 and 900 GEL. Annually, 63% of vehicles operating costs come to less than 500 GEL, while approximately a quarter of annual operating costs amounts to more than 900 GEL.
According to the information published in February by National Statistics Office of Georgia (GeoStat), transport price changes have an important influence over transport as costs have increased by 10.8%.Price increases were recorded for operation of the private transport vehicles (10.1%) and for purchasing private transport vehicles (4.9%).According to the survey, using public transport and its service will be getting more expensive for each citizen of Georgia in the near future, and it is important for local authorities to put more resource into public transport development in towns and develop cycling and walking system.
In the region of Georgia where economic activity is weaker, these figures are far lower, but mobility demands of the population for different types of transportlike cycling and walking is even higher.
First, it is important to survey the transport problem in Georgian towns, to define current needs in local municipalities, to study the attitude of the local authority, and assessthe exiting human and material resources.Based on the abovementioned, the urban development of a general strategy and documents of policy along with the central government should be worked out. The Green Towns projects serves this purpose, currently carried out with support of UNDP and GEF in cooperation with Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection.The purpose of the project is to promote sustainable and integrated municipal transport system development in Adjara region and establishing sustainable transport policy on a national scale.
Vitality of Georgian towns and their economic development are directly related to modern, sustainable urban transport policy creation and development. Local staff training and traffic management models, development of well-integrated public transport, arranging bicycle lanes and walking nets, traffic infrastructure development, optimizing the traffic organization and ensuring traffic safety, creating the cohesive parking strategy and most importantly a long- and short-term plan of action in the transport field are priority actions.
It is impossible to provide citizens with high-quality transport options without adequate resources, and today the resources available to Georgian cities are not sufficient. Addressing the abovementioned issues is impossible without strong support from the central authorities, national plan of action in urban transport field and improvements in the current legislation and institutional set-up.